A "Gargoyles" fanfic by Rydia Erdrick Landale (aka Captain Chaotica!!)
Rating: G. Spoilers for up through "The Gathering"
Chapter Six: Dawn
A thin, wiry redheaded man stood in the middle of the snowdrifts, the bright, warm colours of his clothing and hair clashing with the cold winter landscape. "Please, lovely ladies," he turned around to include Elisa, Katherine, Demona, Angela, and the other female Gargoyles in his statement, "I would like to resolve this conflict without further violence if at all possible, and I'm sure you, being reasonable people, would like to as well. Is there anyone here of authority that I may speak to?" He knew Oberon couldn't be there; otherwise he would have been tossed straight back into the prison already. A mortal, however, he could deal with...
"I...well, I used to be a Princess, back in the mortal world..." said Katherine, stepping forward a few paces, though everyone could tell she was very nervous. The Magus raised a hand as if to put it on her shoulder, move her behind himself, protect her somehow--but sadly dropped his hand and stayed where he was. He was barely able to stand on his own two feet, after all--what use would he be to anyone else?
"Excellent," said the red-haired fay, turning to face her. "Your Highness, allow me to explain our side of the grievance. But first, I think perhaps...a more appropriate setting might be in order?"
He snapped his fingers, and a long, narrow stone building appeared out of nowhere. The escaped god gestured grandly towards it.
Goliath stepped forward to check it out, holding up an arm to warn the others to stay back. Suspiciously, the large Gargoyle crept around the doorway...to be met by the sight of nothing more threatening than rows of long, low, heavy wooden benches on either side of the room. Several stone-and-mud structures, about 5 feet tall each, were in the middle of the building, a merry fire blazing in each one. The floor was mere packed earth, but smooth and solid. He came back out and motioned to the others. "It's all right...I think."
"Of course it's all right, what, do you think I don't know how to make a simple longhouse?" said the fay, affronted. "This is the type of building that the people who used to worship me used for serious discussions of policy; I thought it appropriate, considering. Please, come in, sit down."
Elisa came in after Goliath, clutching her fur cape around her neck. "Primitive...but I'll take it," she decided, going quickly over to one of the fires and holding her hands above it. The Wyrd Sisters spell protected them from actual harm due to the sub-zero cold, but it still wasn't exactly pleasant out there. The others filed in and everybody found a place either on one of the benches, or around a firepit. When they were all settled again, the redheaded fay floated up towards the ceiling in the middle of the longhouse, where they could all see him, and spoke.
"My name is Loki, once worshipped by the Norsemen as the God of Fire and, er...Chaos." The name meant nothing to the three humans of medieval Scotland or the Gargoyle hatchlings, but Elisa drew in a breath and Goliath--who had spent many nights in the library--nodded as if something he had been suspecting had been confirmed. "Now, I won't pretend that I am perfect. I am known as the Trickster God, but well, you know, it just gets so very BORING after a while, when you're immortal. You can't blame a god for wanting to have a little fun every now and then, can you...?"
It's not as if we can really say anything; we've got another "trickster" as one of our allies. thought Elisa. Hey...where is Puck, anyway?
"Yes, I did some bad things," Loki went on, addressing the group, "but I don't think that anything is bad enough to lock somebody away forever over. Especially when they live as long as we of the Third Race do--I couldn't even hope for death to release me from the emptiness. And these giants! They did nothing except be large and fierce of appearance. Sure, the legend says that someday they will help destroy the world, but is it fair to lock people up for things they haven't even done yet?"
"And it's not as if my husband is the only one to blame in these matters," came a voice from the doorway. The mortals watched in amazement as one of the Frost Giants--who was only visible as part of a leg, from here--shrank down into a tall, angular humanoid woman with white skin, long blue-white hair, completely clear eyes, and those pointed ears that seemed to be a somewhat common trait among the Fair Folk. "For all his so-called wisdom, Odin can be a cruel, harsh, impulsive man. I have often thought that he might as well have kept his eye and stayed away from that Well, because it didn't seem to do him any good. He was afraid of the prophecy that said Loki was to destroy the world someday...then did everything possible to provoke him! For one thing, he kidnapped me in the middle of the night and forced me to watch as my children were taken away."
"Children?" said Angela, startled.
"Why, them, of course," said Loki, gesturing towards the wall, which temporarily became transparent so that they could all see through it. "Fenrir the wolf and little Jormungand, the serpent. Ah, how they've grown..."
As the mortals were all boggling at his use of the word "little", Angrboda continued, "I ask you, is it right to take children away from their mother, imprison them, just because they LOOK different?"
"NO!" yelled Demona, striding forward with her hands clenched into fists. "Of course not! We Gargoyles have been hunted down all throughout time for that very reason!"
The frost giantess turned towards her in surprise, a little smile stealing across her face as she realised she had an unexpected ally in this seemingly human female. Loki floated down to stand next to her. "I do not know much of your kind," she said, turning towards Demona, "It seems that although Gargoyles can withstand the temperatures of winter in Scandinavia, they do not like it much. But surely, if you have ever been a mother yourself..."
Loki put a hand on his first wife's shoulder and shook his head, sadly. "Well, like I said, I did cause a fair amount of problems," said Loki, walking over to stand by his wife again. "I admit I tricked a blind man into murdering his own brother--that was despicable, I realise that now. And I caused much pain and embarrassment for others, especially Thor, who was once my best friend. I know all that. I realised it was wrong at the time but did it anyway. I have killed, I have lied, I have stolen, I have ruined the lives of both mortals and fair folk alike, and for what?--my own selfish desire for amusement. But Oberon tossed us into that empty, blank pocket of nothingness and then just forgot about us, for centuries...surely we've paid our debt by now?"
Katherine found her heart going out to the strange couple, for some reason. "It sounds as if your crimes were terrible," she said, slowly, trying to work things out as she went along, "but anybody who would do such things to children--even children such as these..." her eyes flickered quickly to the Midgard Serpent and Fenrir "...is not a worthy ruler, and therefore should not be allowed to make such decisions. So if it were up to me..."
"All we want is to go free," said Loki, spreading his hands and addressing the whole group. "We'll settle the Frost Giants at the North Pole--they'll like it better there than in warmer climates anyway--and then Angrboda and I will disguise ourselves as mortals and live in some little town in Norway. We won't bother anybody. I promise. I'm done with all that Ragnarok nonsense--why would I want to destroy the world? It's far too interesting. At the time, I was mad with rage, blinded with the lust for vengeance..." Here Demona looked starled, as if something had suddenly hit home. "...but several centuries of nothingness is enough time to cool the blood of anybody, even a god. We just want to be free again."
"Well, according to my country's laws, you have served far more than the maximum time in prison even the worst criminals are sentenced to--those that aren't executed, that is." said Elisa. "But how can we know you'll keep your word?"
"You can't," said a voice from the trees behind her, and Puck stepped out, accompanied by a small boy the others had never seen before. "And I should know. He onced scammed me out of a million drachmas, when he talked me into betting on King Priam during the Trojan War!" He looked around the longhouse with an air of disdain. "Ah...straight out of 'Better Homes and Battleaxes'. Get with the program, Loki--this is so last millenium."
"Puck, my old friend, I haven't seen you in ages!" said Loki, beaming with delight. "Why, this is a surprise. Here I've barely broken out of Nifleheim and I meet one of my best friends already. How are things in the real world, anyway?"
"Different." Puck grinned. "You would not BELIEVE what those mortals have been up to. They have this type of magic called 'technology', and you are going to flip when you see how much it's changed things. It's not the world you left at all, anymore."
The red-haired god's eyes sparkled at the thought. "Oh, I can't wait to see it..."
"But Loki," continued Puck, looking his fellow trickster in the eye, "You know full well that the main reason we're not putting you back into Nifleheim...is because we can't. The Wyrd Sisters and I are the only other members of our race currently on this island, and only Oberon himself can cast a spell of that power. But I can tell the Wyrd Sisters about you in a flash, and they'd tell Oberon the second they see him. Trying to destroy the world is about the biggest crime there is...so give me one good reason why I shouldn't tell them. A real reason."
Loki looked at him with a lopsided smile, as if he was about to make a wisecrack, then thought better of it and said, simply, "Because you value freedom as much as I do."
Silence.
"You can go, old friend," said Puck, clapping the fire-god on the shoulder. "You knew I wouldn't really turn you in--I have no more love for authority than you do. Oberon is a stuffy old snot, and Odin...I never did like him. But you know what will happen if you are caught...I can't--and won't--protect you from Oberon's wrath. You must be very careful not to use your magic around any others of our kind, or where mortals can notice it. The Gathering is coming soon, and you know what that means. If Odin refuses to go and Oberon comes looking for him, His High and Mighty Blueness might sense something else in the area..."
"We understand," said Angrboda, smiling at the petite, white-haired fay. "Thank you."
"But what about me?" called Avery, and everybody turned as one to look at the young boy, who had been nearly unnoticed up to this point. "I don't have anywhere to go, either! My parents are..." here his gaze strayed to the Magus and Katherine, both much older than the way he knew them but still unmistakably the same people, "...gone, and I have nowhere to turn to..."
"Ah, yes," said Puck, "Allow me to introduce my travelling companion, Avery...er..."
"Belden." said the boy.
"Yes. He originally was to have died in the siege of Castle Wyvern; I thought it would not hurt history any to take him with me, since he no longer had a part to play." said Puck, shrugging. He did not give any explanation for why he had gone back in time in the middle of a battle, and the others did not ask him for one, probably because they knew he was not likely to answer. "He is now an orphan of time, and has nowhere else to go..."
"Let me take him." said Loki, unexpectedly.
Puck looked up at the Norse trickster in amazement. "You? You've got to be kidding me! You don't exactly have the world's best reputation, ya know!"
"But he has always been a good father to his children--at least, for as long as he was allowed to," said Angrboda. "You've heard the stories, you know that's true."
"He was a MOTHER to one of them!" giggled Puck, holding his sides as he went into a gale of laughter. "Oh, man, I swear, Loki, I can't believe you actually did that..."
"Like you never got a little too into the part while shapeshifted, hmm?" sniffed the fire-god. "But it's true...I may not have been that great to the other gods, but I've never been a bad father. Come on. I'm not supposed to be here, the boy isn't supposed to be here...it's a match made in...well, somewhere."
Puck turned to the boy. "What do you think of all this?"
Avery frowned, and took hold of the fay's purple chiton. "I want to stay with you...you're the only person I know in this future world."
Puck shook his head and gently removed the boy's fingers from the fabric. "Sorry, kid. I've got my hands full with things already--I wouldn't be able to raise a human child in the middle of everything else."
"You could stay with us," said Katherine, wistfully.
The boy looked at her. I wish I could say yes, he thought. But you're not my mother, not really, no matter how much you look like her...and I can never, ever let you know who I am! "I'm afraid not, Your Highness," he said, bowing low. "Avalon is said to be beautiful--well, most of the time--but I can't stay here all my life. I belong to the real world--no matter what time period it is."
"And you couldn't find a better travel-guide than me!" said Loki, bending down to put his arm around the boy's shoulder. "I've been everywhere, I've seen everything...I'm a social type of god who knows everybody and can get along with just about anyone. I have been called many things, but never boring. Stick with me, kid, and your life will never be dull."
Avery glanced up at Puck, catching his eye. "Well...if you say this man is your friend..." Puck nodded, although he didn't add that Loki was a "friend" who always drove him crazy. "Then...I guess I'll go...oh! My books!" He walked over to Puck and took the satchel from him, straining under the weight.
"Books?" said Angrboda. "Times really have changed--most boys your age aren't interested in reading. Of course, most of the human boys I used to know were Vikings..."
"They're..." Loki reached a hand out towards the satchel, closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, and a mischevious smile spread slowly across his face. "Magic! Ha! Brilliant, Puck! No magic is allowed here except Avalon's own, so you disguise the books of human spells by wrapping them up in a cloak made by your magic!"
The Magus looked up at this, startled. "Spellbooks? Really?"
"I saved them from the library, because they were going to be burned if I didn't..." Avery explained.
"A clever trick," said Loki, winking at Puck. "Almost worthy of me. But now, I do think we should be going..." He waved his hands, and where he and his wife the frost-giantess had once stood, were a pair of perfectly ordinary humans--one a red-headed, blue-eyed man, the other a pale, blonde woman with grey eyes. Their features were almost the same as before, except for the ears being rounded. "Or rather, Lukas and Annika Brandt, kindly uncle and aunt to little orphan Avery Belden, should be going. Wouldn't do to let the natives know about us, of course..."
He gathered the other two near himself and raised his hands above his head to begin the teleportation spell, when suddenly there was a great thunderclap, bigger than all the others in the unending storm that had become Avalon's sky, accompanied by a flash of blinding green light. A tall, broad-shouldered figure strode out of it, hands on hips, head held high. He had appeared in the middle of one of the firepits, but didn't seem to notice or care.
"No need to waste your own power on that," said a familiar voice. "Allow me."
It was David Xanatos.
Puck was the first to recover. He strode forward and looked his employer in the eye--not at his expression, but at the man's actual eyes. They were the same deep brown they had always been, but if you knew what to look for... "You did it, didn't you." he said, flatly. It was not a question. "Even knowing how dangerous it was, the fact that it is forbidden, you went ahead and did it."
Xanatos shrugged, not apologetic at all. "I wanted to be immortal, and it seemed like your people have a pretty good thing going. So..."
"What? What did he do?" Demona wanted to know.
"Yes, will somebody please tell us what is going on around here?" asked
Angela. The other Gargoyles nodded.
"If I'm correct, he cast some sort of spell to turn him into one of my--er, our--" he included Loki, Angrboda, and the other Frost Giants "--people, the Children of Oberon. But such magic is forbidden! Fay can be born only of other fay, they can't be made!"
"Oh, so in other words, he did to himself what you said you couldn't do to me," sneered Demona. "I knew you were lying about that."
Puck shook his head. "I can't do that kind of spell, I don't have the power," he insisted. "But mortal magic is different--the power comes from nature all around the wizard rather than from within, and so, as long as a conduit of some sort is present, the human--or gargoyle--wizard can cast spells that take far more energy than they actually have, if they're careful. This spell would have come from the Grimorum Arcanorum, I do believe."
"Yes, it did," admitted Xanatos. "And what of it? I've finally got my dream! Now that I know the spell works, all I need to do is bring Fox back here with me and--"
"Sir," said Puck, unconsciously reverting to not only the speech patterns of his alter-ego, but his appearance as well. The others gasped, and belatedly, he realised that--possibly due to all the stress he'd been under lately--he had just given away his secret identity. Oh, well, that's not important right now, we have MUCH worse things to worry about. "May I please see the spell? The exact wording may be important."
Xanatos looked at him suspiciously, but handed the page over. "I want that back when you're done."
Owen read through the incantation, translating into English as he went. "Magic Isle...immortal flame...bind us together, one and the same?" His voice rose from a mutter to a sharp questioning tone as he hit the end part, and he handed the spell back to Xanatos. "If I'm right...according to these words, you have not only bound yourself to Avalon...but also bound the island to itself!" He took hold of his employer's shoulders and shook the man while shouting into his face. "Don't you get it? All this chaos, this trouble--the broken spells, the lost powers, the darkness, the seal to Nifleheim being opened, the fact that Avalon is cut off from the world...all of this was caused by YOU!"
Xanatos blinked in shock, then pulled himself away from his assistant and straightened out his ill-fitting medieval finery, a calm, calculating look upon his face. "I can live with it. I can live with it forever, in fact. And if you want to leave my service, fine. I won't need the help of an immortal anymore, now that I am one myself. Of course, I already know that my powers will still work on Earth. I teleported there and tried out a little spell before I came here."
"They would," said Owen, "because you are tied directly to the island...at the expense of the entire rest of our race! Please, reconsider."
Xanatos just shook his head. "I've searched for a way to achieve immortality for a very long time, and now that I finally have it, I'm not giving it up. That's final."
"Please, sir," pleaded Owen. "I know you. I know you better than you know yourself, perhaps. And the David Xanatos I know would NOT doom an entire race to extinction. The David Xanatos I know is ambitious, yes, power-hungry, yes, ruthless, sure...but he is not evil. Not truly evil. You have always teetered on the edge of absolute darkness--in fact, that's what makes you so interesting--but you've never fallen in. Please, sir. Don't slip now."
Xanatos said nothing.
"Besides," here Owen changed back into Puck and pointed to the bandaged wound on his arm, which was still stained green with his blood, "we're not so invulnerable as you might think." He paused, and went on, with a wry half-smile. "And one can only see the same sitcom reruns so many times..."
Xanatos's eyes strayed to the wound on the fay's arm. He could have healed that instantly with his magic at any time, he thought. He left it there on purpose just to make the point, didn't he? He looked Puck in the eye. The fay's unblinking expression betrayed nothing, but Xanatos knew he had guessed correctly.
The businessman sighed. "You're right..." He looked around at the dark, twisted, horrible island, and sighed again. "You're right. I do want immortality, but not at this price." He smiled wryly. "I must be getting soft and sentimental in my old age..."
"Thank you," said Puck, and smiled. "I knew you wouldn't let us down."
"I guess I'll just have to find some other way to become immortal!" Xanatos grinned and waggled his eyebrows. "Don't think I've given up on that, because I haven't. But first things first--how do I reverse this? I don't have the counterspell..."
"You don't need it," explained Puck. "At the moment you're one of us, and our magic doesn't require specific, memorised words. All you need to do is concentrate on the result you want, think of a way to describe it that rhymes, and it should work."
"Why the rhymes?" Elisa wondered aloud.
Loki answered her. "Nobody knows. Not even Oberon knows. It's one of those things that...just is."
"Can I do just one more spell, first, you know, by myself...while I still can?" pleaded Xanatos. Puck nodded his assent. The tall businessman concentrated and, with a POP!, Loki, Angrboda, Avery, the two monsters, and all the Frost Giants disappeared. "I hope I did that right...I was trying to send them to somewhere isolated in Norway."
"Well, if you didn't, Loki or Angrboda can correct it in time...I hope." said Puck. "And now, sir...?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Xanatos sighed, took a deep breath, then walked outside and before they had a chance to blink, everybody else was outside too, on the beach. The only way to tell it was a beach was the fact that the unending snow gave way to a huge expanse of ice, of course, but it was a beach. "I never did that well in Creative Writing in English class, but here goes nothing..." He stopped and thought for a moment, then chanted: "Magic isle, as I stand on your shore, make me now as I was before!"
Everyone held their breath, waiting to see what would happen. They were not to be disappointed.
Xanatos felt the power that sparkled through his blood like wildfire suddenly drain away and die, leaving in its place a great sense of loss. He had never needed the power before he had it, but after having it for only a short time, he felt empty without it. It was as if he had never truly been alive, his eyes had never truly been open, before he cast that spell...and now it was all slipping away. The veils were closing back down over his eyes, colours were dimming, sounds were becoming muffled...everything seemed somehow less real now. He knew he would never be the same again.
Meanwhile, the changes happening to the landscape were far more spectacular. The thunder and lightning slowed and stopped, the colours of the clouds turned to more normal greys instead of the sickly greens and yellows they had been before. The trees straightened and became healthy, the far-off horizon was no longer bent and didn't hurt the mind to look at anymore. Then the clouds began to pull back, revealing a pale sky. They pulled back farther and farther, then went down towards the ground, changed from fog to ethereal white mist, and continued to pull back across the land until they were over the water, around the edges of the island, not on it. Meanwhile, the rip in the sky pulled itself together, the ragged edges melting into each other as if there had never been any hole there at all.
Then, finally, the sky started shading from grey to light blue as the sun continued its slow creep over the horizon, interrupted what seemed like hours ago but was really only seconds. The Gargoyles turned to stone as usual, as the Wyrd Sisters' temporary spell was finished. All the colours returned, the air felt fresh and clean, and the snow began to melt, dripping off the trees. There was a sense that time had stopped holding its breath, that things were moving forward once more. The dead, withered leaves on the trees started to revive, to become green again. The bitterness began to seep out of the air, to be replaced by a balmy spring morning breeze.
Avalon was back.
Queen Titania leapt up from the edge of the desk, startled, as the aching cold, the dizzy, ennervated feeling disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. She stood up and changed back into her human alter-ego, Anastasia Renard, when suddenly, a great cacophany started up inside her head, nearly deafening.
What's happening? What was that?
It was horrible! I was so helpless!
So alone...the silence...
Please, Queen, help us!
She put her hands to her temples and rubbed them, wincing, as thousands of frantic mental calls came in, from all over the globe. It was obvious that her subjects had been trying to contact each other all this time, and the messages just now got through. Okay, enough... she told them. Calm down. One at a time. QUIET!
As the chaos inside her head finally subsided, she went on. It's all right, she told them. I don't know quite what happened either, but the magic is back now. Be at peace, my children. Everything is as it should be.
"And none too soon," she said aloud, looking at the clock. It was almost the end of her shift, and the other employees would certainly be wondering what she had been doing in her office for so many hours, especially in the middle of a huge project. Anastasia saved the game, turned the game system off and was about to put it back in the desk...when suddenly, on an impulse, she slipped it into one of the large pockets of her white labcoat intead. After all, her adventuring party had almost made it to the final battle of "Fantasy Quest XII"--it would be a shame to get that far and not see how it ended.
"I knew you could do it, sir," said Owen, who had replaced Puck once again. He wasn't bothering with any special effects, since this was not the time to worry about impressing anybody. "Now, the spell...please?"
Xanatos looked reluctant. Owen just looked at him pleadingly, and the sight of such heartfelt emotion in those normally near-expressionless eyes unnerved Xanatos so much he had to look away. "Oh, all right..." He dug the spell back out of his pocket and handed it to his assistant.
"Thank you, sir." Owen held the page with the spell out in the palm of his hand, flat, and in a moment, the spell caught on fire and burned to ash. He blew lightly on the ash, and it swirled up into a miniature whirlwind and blew away. "Now, I think it's time to go..."
"Not so fast." came a chorus of voices behind them, and the group whirled around to see the Wyrd Sisters floating above the slush and mud towards them, an aura glowing around the three. "We know what you have just done, trickster. You deliberately aided known criminals to escape." said Luna.
"Oberon will NOT be pleased," continued Phoebe.
"You are in grave trouble, servant." finished Selene.
The fay in human guise cringed. "But I couldn't force them back into Nifleheim myself! You know that, Sisters!" he protested.
"And it's wrong to keep somebody in prison for that long, anyway!" protested Elisa, stepping forward.
"Or to hurt them just because they look different!" said Demona, standing forward as well. The two women jumped, startled, as they realised that for a moment they had actually been agreeing on something, and both took sudden, strong interests in the landscape around them.
Nice points, but you're not helping, ladies... thought Owen. The Sisters appeared to not even notice the words of two mere mortals, and addressed him again as if they had never been interrupted.
"But, Oberon will also be unhappy with us, if he finds out about this." said Luna.
"He will wonder how we allowed such a thing to happen to his island while we were guarding it." continued Phoebe.
"Therefore, for our sakes, not yours...we will refrain from telling him. It would be best if you left, however. Now."
"Just one more moment, ladies," said Xanatos. "Please". He looked at the beautiful green hills, hills that he knew he would probably never see again, then turned and faced the misty shore. Gone, forever gone... he thought, sadly. I'll never be truly awake, never truly alive, again. I'll never be the same... Even the memory of it was already starting to fade.
"You all right, sir?" said Owen, gently.
"Yes," Xanatos did a gesture that his assistant could have sworn meant he was wiping away a tear, if it was anybody else, and slowly turned around. "I'm ready to go now."
The Wyrd Sisters looked on impassively at all of this, and then raised their hands above their heads and began to chant in unison.
"Visitors whom to Avalon would roam,
Return thee now to thy own fair homes,
Mortals, too, who dwell on Avalon fair,
Listen to what we now declare:
Thou shalt not remember what thou hast seen--
To thee it shall ever remain a dream."
It seemed as if the mists of Avalon themselves were creeping up over the group from New York City, making everything blurrier and blurrier, harder to see, sounds faded, getting fainter and fainter, there was a dizzying sensation and then--
"How did I get here?" wondered Elisa, as she sat up on a hard, cold stone floor. It took her a moment to orient herself, but after looking around a bit, she determined that she was in some room in what had been Castle Wyvern, now part of Xanatos's building. She had the worst headache but, oddly, did not feel sore at all, as might be expected from somebody who had fallen unconscious on a stone floor. Guess that means I wasn't out very long, then. Well, that's something anyway.
She stood up, brushed herself off, and realised that also sprawled on the floor were Xanatos, Owen, Goliath and...Demona?! As an odd, incongruous little detail, she also noticed that a wooden table in the room was laden down with the remains of a veritable feast. The detective was about to wonder aloud about all this when her digital watch beeped. She glanced at it. "Ack! 9:40 pm...I'm supposed to be on duty at the station right now! I hope Matt isn't too mad about having to fill in for me..."
She was about to head down the stairs, when Goliath stood up and graciously offered his arm to her. "Please, allow me," he smiled. "I can get you there faster."
Elisa smiled, but shook her head. "I'm afraid it's a bit too cold of a night for that." she said. "I'll just drive as usual. Besides...my car's parked in the lot here."
Demona just ignored them. "Well, I still want to know what I'm doing here, Xanatos," she said to the human businessman, suspiciously, as she stood up and brushed off her rags. "I know I came here for some reason, but I can't remember what it is..."
"I assure you, Ms. Demona, I have no more idea why we were all unconscious than you do." said Owen, straightening his tie and looking as composed as if he had just returned from a coffee break. Demona glared at him, willing him to crack, but the blonde looked right back at her, his expression betraying absolutely nothing. With a muttered snarl of frustration, she leapt out the window as well.
"Unlike our blue friend there, I don't just feel that something odd happened...I know it, Owen," said Xanatos softly after she left. He brushed off his Armani suit as he stood up. "I have these strange images in my head...something about a land with no sun...three women who look almost exactly alike...giants...and a gargoyle turning into a human?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, sir." said Owen, bending down to pick up some stray bits of food that had fallen on the floor. "Most likely it was just a dream. A vivid one, but a dream." He had the same images in his own mind, although in his case they were stronger, more detailed--and he also had the feeling that this was one mystery best left unsolved. "We'll never find out what it means--if anything--so I suggest you don't dwell on it, sir."
The eyes of the two men met for a moment, and suddenly, somehow, they had the eerie sensation that...they knew what it was like to be in the other one's place. Owen had been a mortal--for real, not just in human guise--and Xanatos had been an immortal, with powers beyond anything he had ever imagined. But that was silly. Things like that didn't just happen and then leave no trace behind...did they?
"Good night, Owen."
"Good night, sir."
Disclaimers/Acknowledgements:
Story, cheesy poetry, and illustrations (not available at the Fanfiction . net version) (C) November/December 2004, by Tiffany J. Knox. Latin translation of Xanatos's spell by: Supertails. Thanks to "The Gargoyles Fan Site" for the words to the incantations for the Phoenix Gate and Titania's Mirror. "Gargoyles" and all characters and situations thereof are the property of Disney, Buena Vista television, and anybody else associated with them. The characters of Avery Belden, Darlene the secretary, David Bradley in Research, and Elizondo the lab tech belong to me. Loki, Angrboda, Fenrir and Jormungand/the Midgard Serpent belong to Norse mythology, but their portrayal in this story is from me, too, as are Loki and Angrboda's human alter-egos, Lukas and Annika Brandt. All rights reserved. Any resemblance of any character in this story to anybody living, dead, or undead (if you're not sure which you are, ASK!) was mostly coincidental...except of course for those "Gargoyles" characters who rather resemble their voice-actors. Heh. Offer not void in the state of Calisota, check your local listings, your own mileage may vary. May contain nuts.